Everything about this day smacks of perfection. Sunny and warm. June-like temperatures. So much that can be done outside! And we -- Ed and I -- both set out to do it. [Remember when I wrote back in early March that I will not have a day without grandkids until mid April? Well now, this is that day. I have no commitments to anyone or anything -- except to the work that waits for me outdoors. The timing has been perfect -- lots of joyous moments with the little ones when the weather was dicey, with a focus on flowers and plants today, when the weather is absolutely glorious.]
We flip things around a bit. Ed wants to plant the spruce, pine and fir trees that arrived yesterday and that we intend to use as shields against the development that sprung up seemingly overnight.
Of course, it will take a while for them to become established, let alone grow to a sizeable height, but we are planting optimists who seem to regard time as an endless expanse of seasons and hey, maybe we'll see them get big, maybe we wont, but the images are there for us!
In the meantime, I take a quick look at the garden...
And then we head out! No, still not for breakfast. Today is the first day of the downtown Farmers Market. I'm hungry for a spin around the market even more than I am for my first coffee of the day! Ed wants to buy some cheese curds, I have baked goods to pick up at the bakery. Isn't that a fine way to get the weekend off to a great start?
The market is ... crowded! Considering that few foods from the ground can be sold in April, I have to say that this has me a little worried about how the rest of the markets will look. Ours run for six and a half months and of course, the most crowded ones tend to be in the summer when produce and flowers flood the stalls. Today, I have to think it's the weather that brought out the crowds. People just want an excuse to be outside.
Ed picks up curds...
I visit with Jaime from Natalie's, Bill from Snug Haven Farms, and Dave from the Flower Factory. I stop for a while at this last stand. Dave no longer runs the perennial heaven that bore the Flower Factory name, but he brings a few plants each week to the market, just for the fun of being there with a small truckload of plants. We compare notes on how our lavender fared this winter (I think mostly good, though it does get damaged by heavy snows). I tell him how much I miss having a local perennial grower. He agrees that all the flower people have closed shop. Annuals -- still plenty of them out there, but perennials? The sellers are all bringing them in from distant growers.
Dave also convinces me to try growing some black currants and honey berries. I'm on it! I pick up three little pots and this becomes my late morning project.
But first, of course, we do (finally!) eat breakfast.
Now for the berry bushes:
(my wood chips delivery service!)
Not done with plants yet! In the afternoon, I head out for the soft opening of Kopke's -- my source for many, many annuals.
I can't really fill the tubs yet, especially given the frost that is likely to hit us next weekend, but I pick up a couple of baskets that I can carry inside on questionable nights. And, too, I get pansies. These are always my first flowers for a basket that greets you as you walk toward the house from the driveway. This one:
And I plant sweet peas. The blooming kind, not the pods for your salads and stir-fries. Our groundhogs eat the sugar snaps like crazy, so I'm sticking with the flowers this year. (Pansies and peas can take a light frost, so I needn't worry about next week's weather.)
Such an incredible day! I tell Ed that I cannot believe we are already in the thick of the spring season. I have learned to not anticipate it when we're in the middle of a winter month. To instead revel in the quiet joys of the colder weeks. Is this why when we finally hit the forward button on spring, I am so awestruck? So surprised and delighted all at the same time?
Evening. We are both tired souls. Ed naps on and off. I put my feet up and study my flower charts. Tomorrow is another gorgeous day. I have lots to do!
With love...
